While commenting today on media reports speculating that some Afghan war veterans were willing to fight for the anti-terrorist coalition, Chief of the Russian General Staff Alexander Rukshin told journalists that the Russian Defence Minister maintained an "extremely negative" attitude towards the idea of Russian volunteers taking part in the US operation in Afghanistan.
According to him, the president had already taken and announced Russia's level of participation in the US operation. Rukshin reminded the press that Vladimir Putin had stressed that Moscow would be morally on the side of the anti-terrorist coalition, but would not be involved in any direct military operations, instead limiting itself to supplying humanitarian aid to the Afghan population.